Cheat sheet

Reading savings rates, one page

Best-buy tables change weekly; the skill of reading them does not. Ten seconds per account, four questions, and the traps that catch most people.

Term	What it means	The trap
AER	Annual Equivalent Rate: what the money actually earns over a year with compounding, the only number that lets you compare accounts fairly.	Headline gross rates without compounding, or monthly rates dressed up. Compare AER to AER, nothing else.
Easy access	Withdraw any time. The right home for the emergency fund and money with a job this year.	Loyalty decay: many accounts quietly cut the rate after 12 months or include a temporary bonus. Diarise the bonus end date the day you open it.
Fixed term (bond)	A higher rate in exchange for locking the money for one to five years.	Fixing your emergency fund. Fixed money is unreachable exactly when you need it; fix only money with a known date.
Personal savings allowance	Interest tax-free up to £1,000 a year for basic-rate taxpayers, £500 for higher rate, £0 for additional rate.	At around 4 to 4.5% a basic-rate taxpayer can hold roughly £20,000+ in savings before tax bites at all, which is why a cash ISA is often unnecessary for one fund, especially with the cash ISA limit falling to £12,000 for under-65s from April 2027.
FSCS protection	Deposits protected up to £85,000 per person per banking licence if the provider fails.	Brands sharing one licence share one limit. Above £85,000, split across genuinely different banks.

The routine: once a quarter, check your rate against the current best easy-access AER. If you are more than about half a percent behind, the switch takes ten minutes and pays you for a year. Rate ballparks as of July 2026.

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Educational information, not financial advice. Figures current as of July 2026 where dated; allowances and rates change, so check the source before acting.